Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently bought a new 30 ga. tank for my 5" RES because she seemed cramped and bored in the smaller tank. She has lots more room to swim (there's about 20 ga. of water in there) but she still seems bored. She's in my office, so I'm about 6 feet away from her all day. She constantly splashes around, almost acting like she's trying to get out. She does this when she's hungry and I know I already over-feed her so I don't respond to her antics. I go over and talk to her which calms her down a bit, but she still looks at me like, "well, are you going to feed me?" Is there anything that entertains a turtle? She's okay in late afternoon, which is basking time.

well they do seem to get bored.
glad you've got a bigger tank but honesstly its not big enough.
in a large tank you can make caves and multiple basking spots and have gravel/rocks at different heights to create shallow zones and deep zones.
adding live fish or shimp might give the turtle something to do also.
it might seem crazy but a 5 inch turtle would do better with at 6 square feet.
i know you just bought a new tank but you may want to consider getting a really big one.
if its a slider it will one day be between 8 and 12 inches anyway (and that day is not long off) so you will need a huge tank or pool or pond by then.
if its a money issue, look in newspaper classifieds under pets or fish; people sell used tanks really cheap sometimes (and even if they advertise them for alot, if you show up at their house, my experience is they take any offer you make)